Vernal, Utah

  We went to Dinosaur National Monument in Vernal.  Their visitor center has a shuttle up to the Quarry House.  We took it up the hill and went inside to view the fossil wall.  It is amazing how many bones can be seen in it .  The wall seems about 20 or 30 feet high.

More bones

I'm not kidding, the wall is enormous.

This bone is almost as tall as your dad.  It is just one bone from a dinosaur's leg.

A complete Alosauris.  Of course I spelled it way wrong.

After we went through the quarry we took the mile walk back to the visitor's center.  This is what we walked through.

The trail head.  You can see the way we walked.  The only problem is it was very hot about 100.  Good thing we had plenty of water with us.

On one spur of the trail, we went up the side trail and saw rocks with tons of small sea shells in the rocks.  All those bumps on that slab is sea shells.

On another spur we climbed up the side of a hill and saw dinosaur bones on the cliffside.

Your dad went all the way up the "steps" to get a closer look.  I on the other hand decided that my legs were like rubber so I just took his picture. 

We could see the Green River from up there.

We also saw some Indian rock art from about a 1000 years ago.  Nobody knows what any of the pictographs mean.

An alien???

Or just some medicine men?

When we were finished with our hike we went on a auto tour to Josie's house.  She was a rancher up there. 

This is a campground  and marina along the Green River.

There is a working ranch along the river.  It's been there for 110 years right in the middle of the monument.

This part of the river was once a gold sluicing area.  It wasn't worth the time and the money so it was abandoned. 

The rocks up here have strange shapes.  This one is called Turtle Rock.  Ya think?

More rock art.

And more

Here's Josie's ranch.  She lived up here alone for 40 or 50 years.  She fell on the ice in 1964 and broke her hip. 

She had no phone to call for help.  Friends found her and she lived only about four months longer.  She was 84.

The next day we stayed in town and went to  The Field House of Natural History.  That dinosaur is a replica.

The museum has loads of plant fossils from the area.

The floor in the main lobby shows the 80 mile radius that the fossils can be found here in Utah and Colorado. 

Another leaf from about 65 million years ago.

These flower boxes are all over town.  It really is pretty.

Outside the museum is a dinosaur garden.  I took a picture of your dad by one of them to show you how big they are.

I'm back inside and under the big skeleton in the lobby.  It was a good day.

 

We are in Nevada tonight.  We'll be here  in Nevada for the next six nights.  Then back into California.  We'll be home in just two weeks from today.  See you all soon.   Love, Mom and Dad 

Southern Wyoming

We went to The National Historic Trails in Casper.  We "rode" in a covered wagon while it crossed the North Platte River.  The pioneers followed this river for a long ways.

The Trails Museum covers four trails that came through Casper.  One of the trails was the Oregon Trail.

They have a sample of the goods that families carried with them.  The stove probably got left on the side of the trail because it weighed too much.

The Mormon trail

A lot of the Mormons used hand carts like this one.

The California Trail

This is the route it took. 

And last but not least, The Pony Express. 

They rode in relay from St. Louis to Sacramento in ten days.

The express lasted only eighteen months because the train finally went cross country.  

This is a road sign from present day.  People like to follow the trails like people following the old Route 66.

You can see all of Casper from up there.

Then  we drove around the center of Cheyenne.  This is the first governor's mansion. Nobody lives here anymore; it's a museum now.

The Capitol

All around town are large cowboy boots all painted up differently. 

like this one

It's in front of the depot that has turned into a museum as well.

This horse is sculpted from tools and gears etc. to do with trains.

This is the big deal in western wear in this part of the country.  It's very expensive!

Your dad tried on a $150. cowboy hat.  Cute

This a steam engine that ran from Cheyenne to Ogden, Utah until the 50's.

Today we are in Lyman, Wy.  We drove up to Kemmerer to Fossil Butte.  It's supposed to be the site of the largest fish fossil area in the world.

They've found bird fossils as well.

This one is about the size of a chicken.

That white layer at the top is the fossil butte.

We walked up this trail.  And I mean up.

It looks rather like a desert from here.

It has lots of flowers like this Indian Paint Brush.

From about two thirds up you can see forever.

That little bitty white patch in the center of the photo is where we have to get to talk to an intern who is digging for fossils.

These are a couple that have been found at this site. 

Here's our intern.  She just graduated for U of Mich.

There is suppose to be a moose and her calf in the thicket of Aspens.  But all we saw was her scat.  Although we saw a kestrel and a flicker.

We climbed waaay up there.  We're almost back down to the car.  It was about two miles round trip.

 

We've had a good time so far.  In between Cheyenne and Lyman we stopped over in Rawlins.  There was nothing there we wanted to see or do, so we had a rest day. It was very relaxing. We were counting the days this morning and discovered we'd be home in three weeks from today.  Boy time has gone by fast. 

 

Well I guess that's all for tonight.  More later.

Love Mom and Dad